7 ms·

I'm a university professor, and this is batshit crazy. Who? As in not "they" or "the university", but who within the university? Can you tell where the directi

I'm a university professor, and this is batshit crazy. Who? As in not "they" or "the university", but who within the university? Can you tell where the directive is coming from? If this comes from, say, the Provost's Office then this probably can't be handled internally. (The position of Provost is the #2 position at a university, and the provost usually runs the show while the President or Chancellor goes schmoozing with donors.) But if it's coming from the Registrar's Office, then the Registrar doesn't have that much power internally, and you might be able to fight this decision within the university. What they did is not only brazenly immoral, it is also a tremendous legal liability for UW, and it should and might be a firing offense for whoever is responsible. And quite frankly no matter what happens I would seriously consider hiring an attorney (you might find one who will work on contingency). You might speak with any professors in the department you have a good relationship with; I would be very surprised if they were sympathetic to this decision. You might also talk with the university ombudsman, Dean of Students, etc. -- although I would be a little bit cautious and polite here. Just calmly describe the situation and ask what you should do in this situation. Hopefully (but this is very far from certain), they will calmly offer to intervene on your behalf, and then they will go ballistic behind closed doors and absolutely rake the Registrar over the coals. In any case, be poker faced, don't fully trust them, and avoid committing to a particular course of action if you don't have to. Finally, here's an amusing hack. Salaries at UW are public record. If you want to find out how important any individual person is in the hierarchy, look up how much money they make. It's a fairly accurate barometer. https://fiscal.wa.gov/Staffing/Salaries https://fiscal.wa.gov/Staffing/Salaries Universities are not monoliths, and the relationships between different power centers are usually mistrustful at best. Best of luck to you.

ericmcer 2y ago
Are those numbers a sum of the total benefits or something? It seems insane that a campus security guard is making 170k.
- impendia 2y ago
  I don't know. I knew that salaries at public universities are public in many states, so thought to google it -- but the details can vary.
- dekhn 2y ago
  It's total pay without benefits. It includes overtime and on-call time (which are typically paid at a higher rate). It wouldn't surprise me that an experienced security guard is making $170K; the state itself is expensive, and they have to retain staff. The staff is often ex-cop, and guards very frequently work overtime (paid time-and-a-half or more). The guard may be a people manager (I don't know which row you're referring to but it looks like the typical guard makes far less).
- OtomotO 2y ago
  It seems insane that you need campus security guards at all oO
  - School-Cotton 2y ago
    Why?
    - Biganon 2y ago
      Because police is a thing?...
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - singron 2y ago
    A lot of campuses have actual police. In some ways campuses are similar to a municipality and have many of the services that entails (fire, trash, water, power, snow removal, parks, and security/law enforcement). You could similarly ask why a town of 50,000 people needs a police department.
    - zifpanachr23 2y ago
      When you put it in terms of total number of people...it does make sense. A lot of universities down here in Texas have a small town+ amount of students and faculty and they tend to have their own police departments and other services.
  - KPGv2 2y ago
    My university had a police department because it is, as one might expect of a flagship state university, an enormous landmass with billions of dollars in infrastructure and equipment, plus about 6,000 full-time residents living in university-owned housing. Residents of a certain class of people who are prone to doing stupid, illegal shit.
  - bigbacaloa 2y ago
    [dead]
- xkcd-sucks 2y ago
  Consider the liability to which a bad security guard can expose your organization! Not that pay guarantees quality but still
turbojet1321 2y ago
The head coach of football gets paid $4mil a year (4x the president) and is the highest payed employee. The top 7 staff are all sports related. Is this, like, common in the US? It seems batshit insane to an outsider.
- impendia 2y ago
  Yes, this is extremely common. On the one hand, yes, this is absolutely batshit insane. On the other hand, college sports are enormously popular; football games regularly play to sold out crowds of over 50,000, and during football season there will be games on TV all weekend (not just local ones). They bring in a lot of revenue and publicity for the university -- and the latter (debatably?) helps attract students to apply.
  - turbojet1321 2y ago
    I'd never considered that a sports program could be revenue producing. That's quite interesting. Although it seems weird that higher education and (almost-professional) sports are so tightly coupled.
    - sf_rob 2y ago
      An interesting outsider perspective is this clip of Steven Fry going to an Auburn game: https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8 https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8 Regarding the latter, it’s weird and certainly was exploitative when college athletes weren’t allowed to monetize through sponsorships and frankly still is exploitative.
      - turbojet1321 2y ago
        I was more thinking that there's not a particularly natural overlap between sports and academic ability. You'd think that by tying the two together, you'd get both worse sporting and academic performance than if they were unrelated.
        2y ago
chillfox 2y ago
Having worked in university administration before I would say that anyone who lasts as a manager is a professional politician, so expect them to have engineered a very good reason and possibly have allied with another department. As manager pay is usually based on headcount instead of being aligned with good outcomes, they might just have threatened someone's mortgage payments. So, that manager might be willing to call in every favor and fight with everything they have got. But yeah of course it's possible that they got into more trouble than they can handle.
bigbacaloa 2y ago
[dead]

ericmcer 2y ago

Are those numbers a sum of the total benefits or something? It seems insane that a campus security guard is making 170k.

impendia 2y ago
I don't know. I knew that salaries at public universities are public in many states, so thought to google it -- but the details can vary.
dekhn 2y ago
It's total pay without benefits. It includes overtime and on-call time (which are typically paid at a higher rate). It wouldn't surprise me that an experienced security guard is making $170K; the state itself is expensive, and they have to retain staff. The staff is often ex-cop, and guards very frequently work overtime (paid time-and-a-half or more). The guard may be a people manager (I don't know which row you're referring to but it looks like the typical guard makes far less).
OtomotO 2y ago
It seems insane that you need campus security guards at all oO
- School-Cotton 2y ago
  Why?
  - Biganon 2y ago
    Because police is a thing?...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- singron 2y ago
  A lot of campuses have actual police. In some ways campuses are similar to a municipality and have many of the services that entails (fire, trash, water, power, snow removal, parks, and security/law enforcement). You could similarly ask why a town of 50,000 people needs a police department.
  - zifpanachr23 2y ago
    When you put it in terms of total number of people...it does make sense. A lot of universities down here in Texas have a small town+ amount of students and faculty and they tend to have their own police departments and other services.
- KPGv2 2y ago
  My university had a police department because it is, as one might expect of a flagship state university, an enormous landmass with billions of dollars in infrastructure and equipment, plus about 6,000 full-time residents living in university-owned housing. Residents of a certain class of people who are prone to doing stupid, illegal shit.
- bigbacaloa 2y ago
  [dead]
xkcd-sucks 2y ago
Consider the liability to which a bad security guard can expose your organization! Not that pay guarantees quality but still

turbojet1321 2y ago

The head coach of football gets paid $4mil a year (4x the president) and is the highest payed employee. The top 7 staff are all sports related. Is this, like, common in the US? It seems batshit insane to an outsider.

impendia 2y ago
Yes, this is extremely common. On the one hand, yes, this is absolutely batshit insane. On the other hand, college sports are enormously popular; football games regularly play to sold out crowds of over 50,000, and during football season there will be games on TV all weekend (not just local ones). They bring in a lot of revenue and publicity for the university -- and the latter (debatably?) helps attract students to apply.
- turbojet1321 2y ago
  I'd never considered that a sports program could be revenue producing. That's quite interesting. Although it seems weird that higher education and (almost-professional) sports are so tightly coupled.
  - sf_rob 2y ago
    An interesting outsider perspective is this clip of Steven Fry going to an Auburn game: https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8 https://youtu.be/FuPeGPwGKe8 Regarding the latter, it’s weird and certainly was exploitative when college athletes weren’t allowed to monetize through sponsorships and frankly still is exploitative.
    - turbojet1321 2y ago
      I was more thinking that there's not a particularly natural overlap between sports and academic ability. You'd think that by tying the two together, you'd get both worse sporting and academic performance than if they were unrelated.
      - 2y ago

chillfox 2y ago

Having worked in university administration before I would say that anyone who lasts as a manager is a professional politician, so expect them to have engineered a very good reason and possibly have allied with another department. As manager pay is usually based on headcount instead of being aligned with good outcomes, they might just have threatened someone's mortgage payments. So, that manager might be willing to call in every favor and fight with everything they have got. But yeah of course it's possible that they got into more trouble than they can handle.

bigbacaloa 2y ago

[dead]